More pets receive creature comforts
WASHINGTON — Just because 2-year-old Ruben is a dog doesn’t mean he can’t send Christmas cards.
The Puggle from McLean, Va., a cross between a pug and a beagle, mailed seasons greetings to his canine friends and signed them with a paw print. His mother — that is, owner Mary Partlow Lauttamus — knit him a striped scarf along with a new doggy-sized red sweater. He received a box of homemade treats from his walker and a pull toy from a Brittany spaniel. And Santa Claus dropped off the piece de resistance: a new plush toy hedgehog with a distinctive squeak.
“Ruben is really a part of our family,” Lauttamus said. “He’s a good sport when it comes to all these things. He puts up with us.”
This holiday season, retailers catered more than ever to the desire to pamper pets. Responding to what they see as the growing humanization of pets, retailers found that there’s great appeal in the kinds of gifts for pets that were once the sole domain of their owners, such as Christmas stockings, cashmere sweaters and educational toys.
“It’s no longer comfortable to reward these animals in pet terms,” said Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, a trade group. Now the thinking is, “My dog means so much to me that I have to give him something that means something to me,” he said.
According to a recent APPMA survey, about 56 percent of dog owners and almost half of cat owners buy their pets Christmas gifts. Spending on pets is expected to reach $40.8 billion this year, almost double the amount spent in 1996.
Vetere said the growth is driven by two groups of pet owners — empty-nest baby boomers and dual-income couples with no children — who lavish their time, affection and disposable income on their animals. In this world, pets are people too.
In the APPMA survey, Christmas ranked as the most popular holiday to give pets gifts. Though dogs and cats were the most likely recipients, 27 percent of bird owners also admitted to tucking a little something under the tree. Among people with reptiles, the number dropped to 10 percent.